Naniwa: Natural Dark In Osaka (Highland HL665/666)
Festival Hall, Osaka, Japan – March 8th, 1972
Disc 1 (51:08): Speak To Me, Breathe, On The Run, Time/Breathe (reprise), The Great Gig In The Sky, Money, Us & Them, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage, Eclipse.
Disc 2 (73:47): One Of These Days, Careful With That Axe Eugene, Echoes, Atom Heart Mother
This is Highland’s latest Pink Floyd release. They used the same newer tape source that surfaced last year and was pressed on the Sirene release Darkest Moon. For a more detailed discussion of the show and tape source please refer to that review.
Whereas Sirene mastered their release to emphasize the top end, Highland have left the tape pretty much alone and is very bass heavy and “darker”. Maybe this is the reason why they named this Natural Dark in Osaka? There is some very minor distortion present although nothing to get too excited about. Listening to both it’s pretty much one’s preference as to which version is better. Both are very enjoyable. Since Darkest Moon has been sold out, Naniwa is a great alternative and worth having.
